Right now, on a dry lake bed in Black Rock, Nevada, two teams are locked in a fierce competition. Using exotic, jet-propelled vehicles, they’re striving to break the sound barrier–on land. In the process, they’re pushing technology to its limits. What makes the competition even more interesting is the contrast between the two teams. On …
Tag: cars
The physics of driving
A lot of people will be driving a lot of kilometres over the next few months, as Canadians rush frantically around the country to make the most of summer. Unfortunately, quite a few accidents will undoubtedly result, some of which could be prevented if people better understood the physical forces at work when they drive …
Future cars
Like many other small boys, I was fascinated by cars, not least because my oldest brother was a bit of a car guy and subscribed to cool magazines like Car and Driver and Motor Trend. Every so often, one of those magazine (or other cool magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics) would run an article on the “Car of the …
Car sound
One of my earliest childhood memories is of sitting in the front seat of my father’s Studebaker, listening to the Beatles. Since those early days in Lubbock, Texas, I’ve listened to a great deal more music in many more cars. In the Studebaker, and in the ’63 Plymouth that followed it, if you wanted to …
Car care
I like my car a lot. But I have to admit, it doesn’t look as good as it used to. And probably yours doesn’t either. That’s because the moment your car rolls out the factory door, its finish starts to deteriorate. It’s not too surprising, since a car’s surface is attacked by ultraviolet light, ozone, …
The science of tires
It happens to all of us sooner or later. We’re in a hurry, we head off in our car–and discover we have a flat tire. This happened to me twice in December, and got me thinking about tires, which is unusual, because usually we don’t think much about tires at all. After all, they’re pretty …
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